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The '''point spread function''' ('''PSF''') describes the response of an imaging system to a [[point source]] or point object. A more general term for the PSF is a system's [[impulse response]], the PSF being the impulse response of a focused optical system. The PSF in many contexts can be thought of as the extended blob in an image that represents a single point object. In functional terms, it is the [[spatial ___domain]] version of the [[Optical transfer function|optical transfer function of the imaging system]]. It is a useful concept in [[Fourier optics]], [[astronomy|astronomical imaging]], [[medical imaging]], [[electron microscope|electron microscopy]] and other imaging techniques such as [[dimension|3D]] [[microscopy]] (like in [[confocal laser scanning microscopy]]) and [[fluorescence microscopy]].
The degree of spreading (blurring) of the point object is a measure for the quality of an imaging system. In [[coherence (physics)|non-coherent]] imaging systems, such as [[fluorescent]] [[microscopes]], [[telescopes]] or optical microscopes, the image formation process is linear in the image intensity and described by [[linear system]] theory. This means that when two objects A and B are imaged simultaneously, the resulting image is equal to the sum of the independently imaged objects. In other words: the imaging of A is unaffected by the imaging of B and ''vice versa'', owing to the non-interacting property of photons. In space-invariant
The PSF can be derived from diffraction integrals<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lCm9Q18P8cMC&q=diffraction+integral+point+spread+function&pg=PA355|title=Progress in Optics|date=2008-01-25|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-08-055768-7|language=en|pages=355}}</ref>
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